India vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test Stats Preview: Players records and approaching milestones

After clean sweeping Sri Lanka 3-0 in the T20I series, India face the Lankan Lions in the two-match Test series starting from March 4, 2022, at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. New all-format captain Rohit Sharma will be leading the team for the first time in Test cricket. The match is more special for one man, Virat Kohli who will be playing in his 100^th Test match. Virat will become the 12th Indian cricketer to reach the milestone of 100 matches club.

Speaking about the T20I series which India won by a 3-0 margin, nothing went right for the visitors. Shreyas Iyer was the talking point and the highlight of the series as the batter smashed three unbeaten half-centuries in all three matches for which he won the Player of the Series award as well. Sri Lanka was without their star all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga in the series who had got ruled out due to COVID-19.

Ahead of the two-match Test series, the second of which will be played from March 12, 2022, in Bangalore, Test skipper Dimuth Karunaratne would hope to win the first game for his country on the tour by clinching the Mohali Test. Though, winning a Test series against India in India has become a really difficult task for all the visiting sides as India has been completely dominating the teams on these shores for a decade now. New skipper Rohit Sharma would like to start his Test captaincy tenure in style with a victory in Kohli’s 100^th match.

Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers ahead of India vs Sri Lanka, 1^st Test:

Head-to-Head: India and Sri Lanka have met each other in 44 Tests with India winning 20, losing seven, and, 17 matches ending in a draw. In India, both the Asian teams have clashed in 20 Test matches with the hosts winning 11 times and nine games ended in a draw. In Mohali, both have played a solitary Test in the year 1997 which was a draw. India has never lost a Test match against Sri Lanka in India. Also, it will be the first Test match in Mohali since the year 2016

1 – Virat Kohli (99) is one match away from completing 100 Tests.

4 – Kohli (896) needs four fours to complete 900 fours in Tests.

5 – R Ashwin (430) requires five wickets to surpass Kapil Dev (434) and become India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Test matches.

38 – Kohli (7962) requires 38 runs to reach 8000 runs landmark in Test matches.

6 – Dhananjaya de Silva (294) requires six fours to complete 300 fours in Test cricket.

5 – Rohit Sharma (45) needs five catches to complete 50 catches in Test cricket.

4 – Dinesh Chandimal (796) needs four fours to reach 800 fours in international cricket.

43 – Kusal Mendis (5957) is 43 runs away from reaching 6000 runs across formats.

7 – Jasprit Bumrah (293) requires seven wickets to reach 300 scalps across formats.

2 – Kohli (3766) needs two runs to surpass VVS Laxman (3767) and become the fifth-highest run-scorer for India in Tests at home.

4 – Dhananjaya de Silva (46) is four grabs away from completing 50 catches in Test matches.

71 – Mayank Agarwal (1429) is 71 runs away from completing 1500 Test runs.

8 – R Ashwin (642) requires eight wickets to complete 650 wickets across formats.

42 – Shreyas Iyer (1985) needs 42 runs to reach 2000 runs in international cricket.

68 – Ravindra Jadeja (4932) is 68 runs away from completing 5000 runs across formats.

4 – Angelo Mathews (146) is four grabs away from reaching 150 catches in international cricket.

4 – Mohammed Siraj (46) requires four wickets to complete 50 scalps in international cricket.

8 – Hanuma Vihari (92) needs eight fours to complete 100 fours in Tests.

6 – de Silva (444) also needs six fours to reach 450 fours across formats.

6 – Mathews (194) needs six sixes to complete 200 sixes across formats.